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↖ Homepage of the site 'What to do with your life?' Do not judgeWhat is commonly understood by 'do not judge': refraining from expressing a negative opinion about a person. Hidden motivations behind the injunction to refrain from expressing negative opinions about a personAt first glance, 'Do not judge others' may appear as a sign of tolerance and is generally claimed as such.
To better explain this concealment of real intentions, let us recall that there are two major death-dealing alliance strategies, which are two sides of the same coin:
In both cases, it sufficed to place a belief, or a rule (do not judge), above facts, in order to be able to judge on an arbitrary basis (a belief or a rule). The injunction 'do not judge' therefore appears to us first and foremost as an intolerance of the privileged; to the slogan 'it is forbidden to forbid' from 1968, one could well oppose 'do not judge on the basis of not judging'. Nevertheless, when judging, one must carefully choose the criteria:
Hidden motivations behind judgments of what is unacceptableShouting loudly that such and such is absolutely unacceptable, and possibly reinforcing this position with a critique of judicial laxity regarding it, is often just a way of resolving one's own cognitive dissonance. More precisely, this cognitive dissonance lies between, on the one hand, the multiple revolting things toward which one does nothing, as well as the numerous little arrangements one makes to improve one's social position through the game of alliances, and on the other hand, the image of a globally moral person one wishes to maintain of oneself. Choosing a subject and gesticulating loudly thus serves, on the one hand, to hide from oneself all the subjects on which one dares not intervene (see the question 'What is an adult?'), and on the other hand to hide all the subjects for which the attitude one adopts is difficult to defend from a moral standpoint (in the sense of the common good). In such a configuration of life, unfortunately frequent, one tends to establish a separation between, on the one hand, what is less moral than oneself, which one labels unacceptable, and on the other hand, what is more moral than oneself, which one labels idealistic or extreme. It is here that, paradoxically, one often joins the camp of 'do not judge others' on almost all subjects except the one (or the few) against which (which) one has chosen to openly campaign. Refrain from opposing what should be to what isAs soon as one interposes 'what should be' between oneself and what is, one becomes irresponsible. Let us recall that adopting the right attitude means applying Epictetus's recommendation: facing a problem, separate what depends on oneself from what does not depend on oneself. Struggle with all one's strength, determination, and intelligence on the part that depends on oneself, and do not worry unnecessarily about the part that does not depend on oneself. Now, as soon as one has interposed 'what should be' between oneself and what is, one considers that the gap between what is and what should be does not depend on oneself. Here is an example of interposing what should be: 'People should be less materialistic.' Once this judgment is made, one exempts oneself from the necessity of struggling against inequalities, and primarily from putting one's own resources at the service of those in greater need. To be constructive, 'do not judge' must therefore be understood as: not interposing 'what should be' between oneself and the observed reality. Stoic morality can be summarized as: one does not choose one's fate, one chooses how to face it. However, Epictetus's formulation remains more pedagogical. To deepenConsult the questions: The article linked below describes and denounces, without formulating the concept, the alliance strategy in so-called tolerant mode: ↣ From eco-responsible, I went to unfrequented The principle 'observe and do not judge' at the heart of Montessori education corresponds to the same concern of restoring preeminence to facts, of limiting reference to what should be. What we have described here is a fundamental observation underlying Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), developed by Albert Ellis:
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